John Lewis boss: end 'red wall' of Oxford Street buses or lose out to Paris and New York

The boss of John Lewis has called the “red wall” of slow moving buses on Oxford Street the “biggest single threat” to its future prosperity.

Andy Street, managing director of the department store chain, which has its flagshop on Oxford Street, demanded “purpose and resolve” to solve the problem.

He said drastic reductions in the number of bus routes along Europe’s busiest high street and the introduction of a “rapid transit” shuttle service between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road are essential if the West End is to retain its global status.

Mr Street told the Standard: ”Oxford Street is arguably the shopping capital of the world, it is something very, very special for London that has got to be cherished.

“But it is competing against places like New York, Paris and Berlin and it cannot be taken for granted. Perhaps its biggest single disadvantage is the wall of buses that often make it impenetrable.

“Two things have got to happen. First we support a review of bus routes to take them off Oxford Street. They need to terminate at either end with a slick rapid transit system moving people along Oxford Street quickly.

“Second we need a modern ticketing system so passengers are not forced to stay on buses moving slowly along Oxford Street. They need to be able to hop on and hop off at no extra cost.

“Nobody really disagrees with this, it needs to be forced through. In a year when London has achieved incredible things it shows they things can be done if people show purpose and resolve.”

The high profile intervention of one of London’s most powerful retailers will add pressure on Boris Johnson to find a “big bang” solution.

His Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy has ruled out some suggestions such as bus depots at either end of Oxford Street.

It comes as deputy mayor Victoria Borwick launched a report urging Transport for London to radically rethink bus routes in central London in order to remove more buses from Oxford Street.

She called for sponsored shuttle buses offering free travel, flexible ticketing and shorter and more circular routes instead.

The Tory politician also suggested bringing in a time limited bus ticket to encourage passengers to change services at no extra cost.

However, a one-hour bus ticket, a Lib Dem election proposal, was rejected by both the Mayor and TfL who claimed they would lose up to £40 million revenue a year.

Ms Borwick, speaking as a London Assembly member, said: “Experience has shown that this area can have standstill traffic due to the excessive number of buses that travel down it. The status quo has been on place since the 1930s, we now need to challenge past assumptions”.

Nearly 300 buses run along Europe’s busiest shopping street every hour and it has a pedestrian-vehicle collision rate 35 times the London average.

Since 2006, there have been more than 300 bus-pedestrian accidents, in which at least 77 people have been killed or seriously injured.